A scanning electron microscope that is one of the charged particle beam apparatuses is configured to detect electrons obtained by scanning a specimen with an electron beam, and display a signal based on the detected electrons on a screen in synchronization with the scanning of the electron beam, to thereby obtain a fine enlarged image to be observed. The object to be observed is frequently very fine, thereby making it very difficult to find out a field of view to be scanned with the electron beam in an extensive area relative to the object to be observed. Hence, a technique has been used in which a reference pattern for searching a visual field position is provided, and the field of view is positioned to the object to be observed after the field of view has matched the reference pattern.
Patent Literature 1 discloses that an image of an alignment mark set up on a die is acquired in plural times, and a shift from center coordinates of the image of the alignment mark is set as a coordinate correction value. Patent Literature 2 discloses that two different scanning images included in the image operating the same mark are acquired, the two scanned images are acquired within the same scanning period, and the mark positions within the two scanned images are compared with each other to obtain a positional shift between the scanned images. Patent Literature 3 discloses that two scanning signal images are acquired, and a shift amount of the two images is calculated by pattern matching of the two images to automatically adjust an axis of an electron lens. Patent Literature 4 discloses that when a reference image for drift detection is acquired, an image different in the image shift amount is acquired at the same time, an image shift sensitivity is measured as needed, and the drift amount detection and the image shift control (drift correction) are conducted according to the reference image and the image shift sensitivity.